Lauren Cobello: Don’t like to say competition because I don’t agree with competition. I don’t see people as competitors. I see them as inspiration.

Mick Hunt: All of us have a because as deeper than our why.

Lauren Cobello: I love that we go deeper than the why. Because if I would say the why, I would say, you know, I do this because of my kids. Right? But the because is much deeper than that.

Mick Hunt: You show care.

Lauren Cobello: When, like, somebody fires us, I’m like, oh, like like, it hurts because, you know, I’m not like, oh, I’ll just get another one. Like, it hurts because I do care so much, not only about them, but their businesses.

Mick Hunt: In your journey, when did you realize that PR is more important than marketing? Again, not saying marketing is not important.

Lauren Cobello: I love the question when people come to me and they say, PR is dead. TV is dead. I’m like, I’ll thank you for saying that because it’s not, And this is why it’s not.

Mick Hunt: For that solopreneur that should be doing PR, but they can’t afford it just yet, what’s something that that person can do out of the gate right now? And I want everyone to watch or listen into this because these tips are gonna be very key. Because a lot of us, you’re still a solopreneur. Don’t think that it’s a a side hustle. It is not.

This is strategy. Side hustle with no strategy is just a burnout. We are giving you strategy right here.

Lauren Cobello: So Tip number 1 should be that they should set up a sales funnel with a free offer and get people into their email list. It’s tip number 1. Tip number 2 is

Podcast Intro: Welcome to Mick Unplugged, where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insights, bold moves, and game changing conversations. Buckle up. Here’s Mick.

Mick Hunt: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And we’re doing a first today. We’re not only doing a friend, but we’re actually doing, like, a business partner slash coach slash running everything in the world of Mick and Mick Unplugged. I have the distinct honor of bringing on someone who has captivated TV audiences on Good Morning America, the Today Show. You name it, if it’s popular, she’s been there.

Award winning author, leads the largest, in my mind, the largest, most greatest, captivating PR firm in the world. My good friend, I call her l boogie, miss Lauren Cabello. Lauren, how are you doing today, dear?

Lauren Cobello: Thank you so much, Rick. That was the most amazing introduction. I’m so humbled and so grateful to be here.

Mick Hunt: I’m the humbled one because there’s so much that I just wanna talk with you about. You know, again, not only being a friend, but a client, business partner. Right? Like, our relationship started probably somehow on Instagram. Right?

Because that’s it’s it’s 2024. That’s how our relationships start now. Right?

Lauren Cobello: Right.

Mick Hunt: And it wasn’t a pitch or anything. It literally was 2 people that saw 2 good humans and was like, I think we need to know each other. Yep. And then from there, I think I had to beg you to to at least talk to me or send me some information. And then once I got the information, I was like, I should have been a client 5 years ago.

Crazy how that works.

Lauren Cobello: It is. I love social media. I love how it connects all of us, and I love that I get to, like, hang out with cool people like you who are doing amazing things in the world. So totally honored to, like, just know you as a person and to have you as a part of Leverage as well. Again, I’m the honored one.

I’m the humbled one. And, Lauren, you know, again, been a

Mick Hunt: fan of yours forever. We talk so much that this is gonna be the coolest podcast ever. You know, on Make Unplugged, I talk about your because. And and that thing that gets you past those days. Right?

Like, all of us have a because that’s deeper than our why. I would love, because I purposely have never asked you this question, to go there really because I was waiting for today. What’s l boogie’s because?

Lauren Cobello: What’s my because? That that’s a great question. So I love that we go deeper than the why. Because if I would say the why, I would say, you know, I do this because of my kids. Right?

That that would be my why. Right?

Mick Hunt: Yeah.

Lauren Cobello: But the because is much deeper than that. And and that’s why I love this question so much is I’ve been an entrepreneur for 19 years. Right? We I started my first brand back in 2007. 2006, actually, really.

And I’ve been in this industry a long time. I’ve been a national TV personality, written the books, done the online courses, been a coach, done the lead funnels, you know, all of the things. Right? And I always struggled. And being in the world of entrepreneurism and being ingrained in all of my friends, you know, I’m one of us.

Right? What an entrepreneur. I struggled finding a PR firm that understood us. I struggled with PR agencies overpromising and underdelivering. I struggled with hiring a publicist that I felt like understood, like, the business mentality of what drives the needle of us as business owners and entrepreneurs and understood us as visionaries.

And so after many, many years of my friends basically begging me, Lauren, like, you have so much gold inside of you. Please start an agency to help us. I sold my personal finance company and started Leverage with MediaPR to help us, entrepreneurs, scale using strategic PR like I had done for all of those years. And so it didn’t come easy. Like, my friends, like, literally begged me to do it.

So that’s why I do this because I’ve done it myself and my friends literally I always say hot tub therapy, like, when we go in mastermind, where we all have, you know, some drinks and we’re in the hot tub talking, right, about our deepest fears or insecurities as entrepreneurs. And that’s where Leverage was born, and that’s why I do it because I have a heart and passion for helping other entrepreneurs use strategic PR to become the number one thought leaders and, yeah, scale.

Mick Hunt: I can totally cosign on that because you do care. And care, everyone knows this. I say this all the time. It’s my favorite four letter word because it’s actionable. Right?

Like, it’s something you don’t have to talk about. It’s something that you show. And, again, some of this is a little surreal for me, Lauren, because we talk so much, but we never really get to talk like this. And so I want you to know that the sole reason that I said yes, even though you you’re the one that said yes, but we’re gonna pretend like I said yes. The sole reason that I reached out, that I was like, please, was because you show care.

And when I talk to Lauren and everyone on the team, I feel care. I don’t feel like I’m one of a 1000. And I don’t I’ve never asked nor do I care how many clients you have. It’s none of my business. I feel like I’m your only one.

And and to me, that’s what it’s about. When you have not just a publicist, and that’s why I call you my partner, you wanna feel like you’re the only one. And and, again, I know you’re busy. I know the team’s busy. But when we talk, when we review, when we have our meetings, I feel like I’m the only person that your team works with.

And I’m sitting there like, how can you do all of this stuff? Because it’s crazy.

Lauren Cobello: I’m so glad you feel that way because that’s you know, I live, breathe, and care so much about you and about your brand and about where you go, and I I see myself as a a part of the brand and how can we take what you’ve already built and grow and help you reach those levels, right, that that you wanna achieve? And knowing that we have this amazing team that can help you reach those and bring you to those new heights, and then we do it day in and day out. And that I have the best team and, you know, you you know as a leader, like, I actually just did a LinkedIn post today about how when people always say, like, you have the most amazing company, I say, well, I have the most amazing team. My team is phenomenal, and I invest so much in the people that I bring into my team. And we build our culture so carefully, and that means the world to me, the people that I bring into the team so that we can have our clients feel that way.

Because to me, I don’t wanna feel like a number. You know? Yeah. And I truly care. Like, I love all of our clients.

Love every single one of them. And it pains me when, like, somebody fires us. I’m like, oh, like like, it hurts because, you know, I’m not like, oh, I’ll just get another one. Like, it hurts because I do care so much, not only about them, but their businesses. And so, yeah, I I just appreciate any of those words.

Like, thank you.

Mick Hunt: Absolutely. And so now, l Boogie, we’re gonna get into it. We’re literally gonna get into it, not you and I, but it’s gonna be you and I against the world right here. Because I’ve been saying, hardcore for the last year, from a business strategy standpoint, that publicity and PR is more important than marketing. And here’s my stance with that.

When you’re marketing and and by no means am I saying that marketing is not important. So for all the entrepreneurs, the solopreneurs, the I want to be a preneur whenever that is. I’m not saying marketing is not important, but the world has told us for so long that it’s marketing, marketing, marketing. And you normally see marketers out front because they have all these cool things that you can do. Not saying you should do, but that you can do.

In the meanwhile, PR and publicist are making relationships. Right? And so if I’m marketing, and let’s just say I’ve got a 100 people that view me, and I don’t care where it is. Right? If I’ve got a 100 eyeballs, I’m always only marketing to those 100 eyeballs.

And at some point, that 100 starts to shrink. It is just natural. I don’t care who you are. That email subscription that you have, that newsletter subscription that you put out there, those numbers shrink. Right?

Like, it’s just the nature of the beast that anyone telling you otherwise is lying. So if I start with a 100, within 12 months, I’m if if I’ve never grown that list, I just now I’m gonna have 90 or 85 or 80. Publicity is what takes your viewing from a 100 to a 1000. A 1000 to 10000. 10,000 to a 100.

A 100 to 500. 500 to a 1000000. So I kinda know your answer because of the world that you’re in. But even in your journey, when did you realize that PR, publicity, viewing, is more important than marketing? Again, not saying marketing’s not important.

But when we have a hierarchy, I promise you PR is more important. L boogie. Your stance.

Lauren Cobello: I love this question, and I love the question when people come to me and they say, PR is dead. TV is dead. I’m like, I thank you for saying that because it’s not. And this is why it’s not. Right?

Is we still have 5,000,000 people tuning in to the Today Show. 5,000,000. So you’ve now taken that 100 right from your email list and turned it into 5,000,000 people. And from that 5,000,000 that are regulars of the Today Show that are watching through social media, we now have another 3,000,000, 5,000,000 from their social media channels. So now we’ve added an additional 5,000,000 from people that are watching them on Instagram and YouTube and their TikToks.

Right? So now we’ve added an additional 5,000,000. Now what’s great about all of that is that we can now tag all of these audiences with these marketable assets. So I always say that PR and marketing work really, really well together. Right?

And I also love the saying that if a tree falls in the forest, does it even make a sound?

Mick Hunt: Yes.

Lauren Cobello: But if nobody’s around it, does anybody hear it?

Mick Hunt: Well, nobody might not hear it, but it still makes a sound.

Lauren Cobello: Still makes a sound. But does it ever move the needle? Right?

Mick Hunt: Right.

Lauren Cobello: So when you’re marketing to an audience that is dead, right, we need new eyeballs. Right? And what’s actually really brilliant about kind of the way that marketing is now is that everybody is so focused on social media and becoming an influencer and paying for numbers and paying for likes and paying for influence. Right? That what we’re seeing is a rush back to traditional media for people that are smart because you cannot pay for those appearances.

You can’t pay for a today show appearance. You can’t pay for a TV segment. There’s some pay to play segments that are out there, but everybody knows what they are. You can’t pay for a GMA, you know, or Cheddar or any of our CNBC segment. Those are earned because you are valuable enough for your story to get featured.

Right? And so you have to have the combination of marketing and PR. But if you go to 2 different Instagrams or 2 different TikToks and you see 2 different platforms and, you know, just their you you land on each of their pages and you see one that just has reels and you see one that has reels with as seen on today, as seen on GMA, as seen on CNBC, which one are you going to listen to more? Right? The the one that has as seen on Forbes, CNBC, Fox, CNN, you know, all of those things.

So you have to sprinkle in PR because if nobody knows your message and if nobody sees that you’re getting these really amazing earned media segments because you are the expert and the thought leader in that, you’re gonna blend in with everybody else. And the goal is to stick to the top and to be the number 1 and to have your message on number 1. The people that are standing out right now are the people that are having that national media exposure and all of that press. It’s just the way it is, and that it’s the way it always has been. And marketers will say, well, we have an ROI.

So, yeah, so do PR and turn those into marketable assets. And then we can judge the ROI of those, but we there’s still an ROI in PR. There’s there’s just a different way to measure it, you know, through it’s called AVM, the average you know, you look at the average of millions of views on articles and TV segments, and, you know, our clients are getting millions and millions of views. We have one client in the past year and a half who’s had over 35,000,000 eyeballs on him, new eyeballs. And you can’t tell me that that’s not worth something.

Mick Hunt: Exactly. And, again, I’m gonna keep saying this. I’m not saying marketing is not important, but there comes a time for most people where PR becomes the most important thing. And then, again, I don’t ever think that anyone should try to be a celebrity, aim to be a celebrity. You should always be your authentic self, and we’re gonna come back to that in a second.

But when you see these a listers and b listers, they all have publicist. Okay? Like like, they all still have publicist. They all still have PR teams that handle all of their public relations because that is what you need, and that’s what I think the solopreneur, the entrepreneur with small teams, the people that are trying to get there is the biggest miss is that you focus on the marketing strategy. Again, very important.

But what you really need to be doing is trying to figure out how do I get eyeballs. And I will also say social media makes that easy Easier. Easier. Not there’s no easy button. Social media does make it easier.

But I would love Lauren, because I have a moment that I realize it. When did you realize that for you personally that, alright, if I don’t do something, I can’t get to where I know I should be?

Lauren Cobello: Yeah. So for me, it was when I was you know, I owned my personal finance website. It was called I am that lady.com, which was the initial version of it. And I wanted to get in a a traditional book deal. I had already self published 2 books.

And to get a traditional book deal, you need to put together a pretty robust marketing plan. And it was at that time I had been doing a lot of local television in my local area, and it wasn’t enough for me to get a book deal. And so it was then that I tried to hire my first publicist, and she sent me a whole bunch of, like, go banking rate articles. And now I’m not gonna, you know, say bad on go banking rates, but we we actually have a rule in our agency that we don’t we don’t do Go Banking rates articles because I was like, I can flip a coin as an entrepreneur and get a Go Banking article. Like, we all know people that write for Go Banking rates.

Like, we as entrepreneurs can get those so quickly. Right? Now some of them are really good. And if it’s like you’re just starting out with us and we we need to get some quick press fast to get you some good SEO, like, we’ll do it because it makes strategic sense. Right?

Because we need to get your name out there. So I hired this publicist, and that’s all she sent me. And I’m like, all of my friends write for this. Like, I’m wasting my money. But I realized that, you know, a lot of people in my industry, there were a couple, maybe 2 or 3 people that were on national television.

And I realized that in order to set myself apart from my competition, I needed to take a step forward. And so I invested in a media trainer. I invested in a high tier publicist and a talent coach, and that’s when I started making that big shift towards trying for National. And I would do the craziest things, Mick. Like, one time, I answered somebody on Twitter.

This was, like, in probably 2011, maybe. Somebody on Twitter posted, like, looking for a guest and their mom with, like, a shocking revelation or something like that to come in a national TV show. And I had no idea what it was. So I’m like, oh, my my poor mom. I always put her up to things.

I’m like, yeah. Me and my mom will do it. Like, you know, I’ll do it. Fine. So and it was for doctor Oz, and I didn’t find that out till later.

And so I flew myself to New York City and I did the doctor Oz show. They sat me in the audience. The only reason I did that is because I was trying to break into national, and I knew that if I met the producers, I could try to convince her to have me on the show. That turned into a 4 year regular gig with the Doctor. Oz Show.

So I invested in learning the skill. I invested the money in understanding how national television works, hired a publicist, but then I didn’t just wait for the publicist. I went and did stuff like that myself. And I found out the name of the producer, and then I had my publicist picture, and then that turned into a 4 year relationship. So I’m I’m a very strategic person.

Like, what do I need to do to get to that next level? I need a book I need a traditional book deal in order to break to that next level. How do I get there? How do I get that book deal? I need national television.

Okay. So I need to get on national television first. So that’s how I kind of got international TV, then use that to get the book deal, and then the book deal helped me get more national and made me a bestseller. So, like, to me, it was, like, kind of looking I don’t like to say competition because I don’t agree with competition. I don’t see people as competitors.

I see them as inspiration. And so for me, that was the strategy behind, you know, okay. I see a couple people are doing this. What did they have to do to get there? I’m gonna do what they did, do it better, and secure myself on there.

And all of those things are, you know, what I teach our clients now. Like, how do we get you there? It doesn’t have to take you flying yourself to and sit in the audience at doctor Oz now. Now I can teach you those secrets before you have to do something like that.

Mick Hunt: I love it. I love it. I love everything that you said there. And and for me, you know, it was for 24 years, most of social media, I e LinkedIn, because that was the only social media I had until March of this year. Right?

I was just on LinkedIn.

Lauren Cobello: Really? I didn’t know that.

Mick Hunt: Yeah. Yeah. So on LinkedIn forever, I was the insurance consultant. Right? Like, I scaled businesses, built businesses, coached CEOs, but, like, they knew me in the insurance world.

And it was at that point that I realized social media perspective, that’s what they know of me. But, like, all of my friends and my communities know this leadership guy. Right? Like, this this guy that is their words, not mine, like, the leader’s leader, the modern leader. And I said to myself, easy.

I’ll start an Instagram account, and that’s what I’ll post about. Right? Starting a podcast and everything will be about the modern leader because that’s like, my people on Instagram are gonna know because that’s who they see every day. But all of a sudden on LinkedIn, though, the 15,000 followers that I have and connections that I have, when I start doing all of this leadership stuff and the things that I actually pull the curtain behind, like, I’ll say the real Mick, it’s gonna be different. And that’s when I understood PR is more important than marketing.

Because I could market to these 15,000 people, but the message isn’t gonna connect because they know this one instance of me, this one version of me. Right? And that’s when I said, oh, PR. And the the light bulb went off, and it was like, it’s more eyeballs, and it’s more views, but I am always authentically me. Right?

So even though I talk insurance, I still talk my style, I still talk about the same things in insurance that I talk about elsewhere. But for those 15,000 that were connected with me, the couple of 100 other 1000 people that really know me, like, this is who I always have been. And so it was like, okay, PR, I get it.

Lauren Cobello: Mhmm. And to think about it this way, PR is if nobody tells your story, somebody’s telling your story, just not you, if if you’re not the one that’s doing it. And so PR is a way and a methodology of telling your story online and through TV segments and articles and podcasts. Right? So it’s all strategy of how do we want mix to show up in the world.

What are the things that we want? And and it even comes down to, like, what do we put on the lower third of every single TV segment that we do? What are the talking points that we put in front of TV producers, making sure that they’re crafted so that you can answer the way that Mick wants to answer. Right? Everything is perfectly crafted so that you can amplify the message that you need to, you know, amplify to bring in new clients.

And so it’s very it’s not like we’re just gonna throw spaghetti at a wall, you know, and, like, hope that you get clients. It’s very strategic. And how do we put the brand story out there in a way that resonates with people in a relationship way, but also resonates with people that see you and say, oh, like, I need to go and follow him. You know? And and I think that then you can turn those into marketable assets, but it’s a it’s a method of storytelling and warming up your audience and building trust and likability and, like, oh my gosh.

I saw you on TV. Like, I have to work with this person over this person. And if you don’t tell your story, somebody else will in a way that you don’t, you know, really like, probably. Or control. Or control.

Right. So it’s a way that you can control the narrative, and then we turn them into marketable assets. Like, every time I was on the Rachael Ray Show or the Today Show, I would always take the picture that I took on set and then, you know, create an ad to that audience. Like, hey. Did you see me on the Rachael Ray Show yesterday or see me on the Today Show?

And then create a sales funnel, you know, on the back end of that. So, like, you can turn what we do in PR into those marketable assets to to have an ROI on the back end that gives you some sort of as marketers, right, we like to see those, but I think that trips some people up. It’s like, well, I can’t see, like, who clicked or who got me from this segment. It’s like, well, that’s not the point.

Mick Hunt: Right.

Lauren Cobello: It’s not the point. It’s like, how did you see me? You found me on Instagram. That’s, like, exactly how PR works.

Mick Hunt: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So let’s do some education here, Lauren.

Lauren Cobello: K.

Mick Hunt: Because we could do this for for hours. And, actually, I do think we need to have a little series to help people. So I think we go the PR strategy 101

Lauren Cobello: Okay.

Mick Hunt: With with Mick and his l boogie over there. So for the and I wanna start with the solopreneur. Right? So the person that they’ve started a business, they’ve started a brand, and they might have followers following. They may have some subset of an email list or a social list or whatever.

But in their mind, they can’t afford PR just yet. Right? I’m a be honest, you probably shouldn’t spend money on PR just yet, because there’s other things you should be doing. So Lauren’s tip number 1. For that solopreneur that should be doing PR, but they can’t afford it just yet, what’s something that that person can do out of the gate right now?

And I want everyone to watch or listen into this because these tips are gonna be very key. Because a lot of us, right, some of you are, you know, you’ve got a 9 to 5, but you’re looking for that side gig or the or that thing that’s gonna give you extra income until you can get there and make it your thing. You’re still a solopreneur. Don’t think that it’s a a side hustle. It does not.

This is strategy. Side hustle with no strategy is just a burnout. We are giving you strategy right here. So tip number 1, Lauren, what should that person do?

Lauren Cobello: So tip number 1 should be that they should set up a sales funnel with a free offer and get people into their email list. It’s tip number 1. Tip number 2 is really clear on what their brand is and what their brand is not. Who is their target demographic? And then they’re gonna write a thought leadership book about that topic.

But they cannot write a memoir. Do not write a memoir. So many there needs to be the right book for your brand. Now

Mick Hunt: Yes.

Lauren Cobello: What I say about this is and this happens all the time, and people mess this up all the time and they come to me too late with their book. Right? Is you need to have a book that solves the problems of your customers and clients. It can have your stories in it, but it needs to have some sort of how to. So

Mick Hunt: Yes.

Lauren Cobello: Tip number 1, do the sales funnel. Tip number 2, be really clear. Tip number 3, write a thought leadership book and include that thought leadership book in that sales funnel.

Mick Hunt: Alright. Let’s start with 1.

Lauren Cobello: Okay.

Mick Hunt: Because I wanna be clear with everyone here in how this all ties together. And, Lauren, I know that that’s where you were going, but you’ve got that, you know, upstate New York. You talk a 100 miles an hour. I’m sorry. And I couldn’t follow you.

No. I’m joking. I could follow you. You you know that. I love you, Lauren.

Lauren Cobello: I’m going slow too. Jeez.

Mick Hunt: So so here’s what I need everyone to understand. When Lauren says have a free offer or a giveaway, have something that is compelling that someone would actually want it. And beyond wants it, they need it. Because I will tell you, a lot of solo even I see big brands also mess this up, but they can get away with it because they’re big brands. And sometimes they’re AB testing.

I’m like, they really didn’t wanna do that. Have something that people need. Whoever your ideal client or clients are, talk specifically to them and give them something that they need. And that’s something. And here’s also where people get it wrong.

It doesn’t have to be something grand. It could be a guide. It could be 5 tips that they can implement every day. It could be whatever. You wanna have something that people want and need that’s your ideal client.

Right, Lauren?

Lauren Cobello: Yep. Exactly. Exactly.

Mick Hunt: Number 2 is critically important, and Lauren, I’m gonna let you deep dive here.

Lauren Cobello: Yep. So you need to understand what your brand is and what it isn’t. Right? You need to understand your target client. You need to understand their pain points.

You need to understand what keeps them up at night. You need to understand what makes them buy, what makes them not buy. You need to understand what makes them excited and what their goals are in order to make this sales funnel work. And what this sales funnel is gonna do is bring people into your email list and bring in some revenue for you on the back end. So one of my, you know, sales funnel starts with a is your brand ready for PR actually.

On my personal website, laurencovello.com, I talk about that specifically. Is your brand ready for PR? Because if you’re not set up for PR activities on the back end, you don’t even know what the goal of PR is. It’s gonna be a waste of your money. And so we’re very specific about the clients that we bring in.

Like, they need to be at a certain place of their brand in order to work with us because it’s very strategic in what we’re doing. Right? So that’s crucial in this whole play of knowing and being really honed in on what your brand is and what it isn’t.

Mick Hunt: Yeah. And 1 and 2 have to jive together. Right? You can’t have a offer or a giveaway that doesn’t tie to your brand and your message. Like, I would actually say, in my world, because it is more thought leadership.

Right? I would say you have to have a message first. You need to have a message, a giveaway, and then the brand identity. Right? But let’s just go along these lines.

It all still has to tie together. Right? Like, you don’t wanna give away a free combo at McDonald’s. Right? And then your actual message is about self improvement or or whatever.

Right? So you’ve gotta make sure that everything ties together. And shout out to McDonald’s, by the way. That that wasn’t a jab. I’m just saying you’ve gotta be consistent.

You can’t talk about football in your giveaway, but your how to and your strategy is all about basketball. Right? Like, you’ve gotta make sure that everything is together.

Lauren Cobello: Exactly. Very much aligned. And the same thing with your book. It needs to be aligned in the same way. And building the brand needs to come before writing the book and launching the book.

I would say it’s crucial to have some sort of personal brand before you write the thought leadership book piece. Yeah. And I would say that the thought leadership book is about a topic that you wanna solve. But when when I say write the right book for your brand, is it needs to be similar to what your business goals are. So for example, if your business goals are to be a speaker I’ll use this example.

Like, let’s say, if you wanna be a speaker at dental conventions. If you’re a dentist and you wanna speak at dental conventions, and you wanna sell this book to dentists, right, then you should write a book that is sellable to dentists, something that dentists care about. Maybe it’s about scaling a dental practice. Maybe it’s about how to scale your dental practice to 8 figures or, you know, something like that. I would not write a children’s book on getting how parents need to teach their kids how to brush their teeth better.

K? Does that make sense? So, like, you need to match the book with the end results. Now if if you’re an educator who’s gonna take a kid’s book into parent teacher conferences or parent, you know, events and you’re gonna be targeting parents, then that would make a lot more sense. So when you’re writing your book, you need to kind of have the end goal in mind of where is this going to sell and then work backwards because it’s gonna help with the strategy and the sales strategy of how to sell that book a lot better in the end goal.

Mick Hunt: There we go. Love that. Those three tips, amazing. We’re here to educate. We’re here to educate.

Now I have one more question slash tip that I want you to be able to give out. Because, again, I know you like one of my closest friends in the world, and I know that you also are huge on not just empowerment, but you’re really big on women togetherness, women community, women building. And we have a lot of listeners and viewers, and I have a lot of friends that I want you to give this message to. Because in today’s society, right, like, a lot of times people don’t have self belief. They don’t have the courage that they can take these steps.

So for the listener or viewer, Lauren, that’s like, alright. I don’t have confidence in myself that I can go start this business, or I don’t have confidence in myself that I can go demand that raise that I deserve, or that I can apply for that promotion. I’d love for you to give, 1, a powerful message, but, 2, some tips around that too.

Lauren Cobello: Yeah. Thank you for giving me the platform on on this topic particularly because it’s something I’m really passionate about. A lot of people don’t know, but I’m actually a single mom of 4. And I got divorced 7 years ago, and one of the biggest reasons why I got divorced was because I the more successful I got, the more difficult it was for my ex husband to handle my success. And not that that led to the end of the marriage, but I think that as strong, powerful women, I left that marriage feeling very down on myself.

I left that marriage feeling actually like I had a lot of trauma around how successful I had been. You know, this was at, like, the peak of my national television career, and I kind of resented that success for a really long time. And I said to myself, I’ve got a son who’s 19 now, and I have 3 daughters who are 15, 13, and 11. And, you know, I I looked at my kids when I sold my personal finance company, and I and I looked at them. And they were like, mom, why do you sell your business?

Like, how are we gonna make money? And I said, kids, I just wanna I just said watch me. I’m gonna build this to $1,000,000 in a year. Just watch me. And we did it in 1 year, 7 figure business, surrounded by all female employees, a female leadership team, and me as the founder and CEO.

I’m not a a feminist in the sense of, like, guys suck because I I don’t think that at all. I think that guys it’s just happened that the best people that I’ve been able to find in my organization are female, and I’m not opposed to hiring a man to come and join us. I’m not my CFO is a man, actually. So we have one guy, and I’m not opposed to that. But I just know that I am so passionate about women feeling empowered that they don’t have to sit around and wait for the people in their lives to give them permission.

And if I had waited for my ex husband to give me permission to be successful, for my kids to believe in me instead of me just believing in myself, I would have still been waiting. And so a lot of my success has come from the concept of jumping out in faith before I believed in myself and doing the actions before they made sense. And so I’ve always just surrounded myself with people that are smarter than I am, people that believed in me before I believed in myself, and just believe that anything is possible as long as I just keep on moving. And so whenever I get knocked down, I get back up, and I always believe that that is the key to success with anybody is that nobody can keep us down as long as we just believe that, you know, knock me down. I’ll get back up twice.

You know? That that is the path to success. And so, yeah, now, you know, at leverage, we have 7 full time employees. They’re all female. They care.

I think that that’s you know, we’re all most of us are moms. I think that’s where, like, you know, I employ, like, 3 other single moms. It gives me such great pleasure to, like, support other single moms that make a great living. I pay my employees very well. I want them to make a living.

I want them to have good work life balance. I wanna provide a culture that they show up to and enjoy work, and I wanna provide that for myself. So I am so proud of, like, what we’ve built. But the other women listening that, like, you don’t have to wait for other people to give you permission. You can just go out and do it yourself, and and you can do it.

Mick Hunt: Damn right. Damn right.

Lauren Cobello: Damn right.

Mick Hunt: Lauren, we could do this forever. I think we need to have another series on this too. So I think we’re gonna have, like, 3 good sets with Lauren Yeah. For the series itself.

Lauren Cobello: I would I would I would be honored.

Mick Hunt: Let’s do it.

Lauren Cobello: And so You were, like, the dream client, just to let you know. Like, just honored. Yeah. You really are.

Mick Hunt: No. I’ve talked to 27 other clients, and they all told me that you said the same thing. So so Did not. Yeah. Yeah.

Lauren Cobello: You really are. You are amazing. I’m so inspired by you, and I’m so grateful that you had me on.

Mick Hunt: I’m honored that you took the time. So where can people follow you and find you? And we’ll make sure we have access to all that in the show notes and all the descriptions.

Lauren Cobello: Yeah. So the agency is at leverage with mediapr.com, and same on Instagram, leverage with media PR. And then my personal Instagram is lauren_cobello. That’s c o b e l l o. And then that’s my website, laurencobello.com as well.

And you can find me on LinkedIn under my name. But I’d love to connect with people. I love talking to people and just I mean, that’s how we talk. We just, like, talked on Instagram for a couple months and

Mick Hunt: And then I begged you to to hire me. Yes.

Lauren Cobello: It’s really me on Instagram. Like, I don’t have a team. I I manage my own Instagram, so I love just love talking with people.

Mick Hunt: There you go. One of my best friends in the world, one of the best humans on the planet Earth, miss Lauren Cabello. Lauren, thank you so much today, dear.

Lauren Cobello: Thank you so much, Mick.

Mick Hunt: You got it. And to all the listeners and viewers, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

Podcast Outro: Thank you for tuning in to make unplugged. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose, and chasing greatness. Until next time. Stay unstoppable.